I’ve had a few frugal moments in the past week, and outside of my cooking efforts, it’s been a while since frugality was a post topic. So this seems like a good time to relay/brag about some recent (small) frugal victories.
And I’d love to read your latest proud frugal moments too!
The present
The first frugal moment was buying a birthday present for Pirate Party Guy. He wanted a smaller crockpot — the current one takes up the whole dishrack — and was intrigued by the ones with a timer.
He sent me an Amazon link. It was a reasonable price — $42.99 — but I knew I could do better.
I knew I had an Amazon return to make, and when you return an Amazon order to Kohl’s, the store gives you a receipt with $5 of Kohl’s cash. (It used to give a discount — 25% or 35% — but these days it seems to have settled on Kohl’s cash.)
So I did the return and:
- Went through Mr. Rebates for 2% cash back
- Used a 15% off coupon (which is applied before Kohl’s cash)
- Applied the $5 in Kohl’s cash
- Used my Chase Freedom card via PayPal, which gets me 5% cash back this quarter.
Once all the cash back finds its way to me, I’ll have paid $30 pre-tax instead of $43.
Woot!
The groceries
My fatigue has been horrible lately.
I’ve left the house maybe three times in the past nine days. Two of those times, a single errand left me exhausted. In some cases, even without leaving the house, I’d end up spending the whole evening on my bed lying as still as possible.
That’s far worse than the month when I had no stimulant in my system whatsoever — and right now I’m taking an anti-narcoleptic, which is a stimulant. Doesn’t make a dent.
I’ve done a little Googling, and it looks like my new blood pressure med is the culprit, so I’ve called my doctor. But a few days ago, it meant that I needed to do some cooking, but wasn’t sure I could even leave the house. If I did, there was no way I could even think about cooking for at least a day.
I decided to suck it up and get Fry’s delivery, since I knew there was a coupon for first-time delivery customers. I figured the $10 discount made up for the $9.95 delivery fee, so I’d just be out whatever the tip was.
Well, the Fry’s app had shown me two coupons: one for $15 off $75+ delivery or pickup orders and one for $10 off. I added both to my card, hoping the app would choose the bigger discount.
But as it happens, it applied both. So I got $25 off my order, plus a couple of coupons for the actual products purchase.
So I actually paid $1 less than I would have in-store. Which maybe doesn’t sound impressive. But that’s after the aforementioned $9.95 delivery fee and not just initially tipping (on the full amount, of course) but also adding a couple of bucks because she did a fast and stellar job.
Freed up from expending the energy to go anywhere, I was able to get a meal cooked and put away.
The cereal
Mom will be here Thursday (woot!), and there are a few things I need to get so she has something to eat.
I need to wait until the last minute to get the milk and eggs, but she also wants some cereal.
And since I was having an inexplicable hankering for Froot Loops, I went on Target’s app to look up sodium levels and discovered a $5 off $15+ grocery order for Target Circle members. (Target Circle is a free loyalty program.)
So I was able to get Mom a couple boxes of cereal and myself the Froot Loops* for $9.17 after discount. All three cereals would’ve been $4.50 to $5 each at Fry’s even with coupons.
But I also got to apply $0.16 of rewards from my last Target purchase. Bringing it down to $9.01.
Then I paid with my gift card balance — and the gift cards were purchased on Raise for about 7% off the card value.
I chose curbside delivery, so I don’t even need to change out my PJ pants to go get them. Which has nothing to do with frugality but is pretty dang nice.
*I eat them like a snack (aka dry) so it’s unlikely I’ll stick to a single serving. But as long as I don’t eat the whole box, I should be fine.
So those are my recent small frugal victories. What cool savings stories do you all have?
I am always amazed at your stories about saving money. You make great chains of savings.
And you still did it with your fatigue.
Hello Linda, sorry I missed this comment somehow!
Thank you for the support. I think I’ve (outside of bad med side effects) found a good balance for fatigue vs activity. But online shopping is also a godsend!
Do you use Ibotta? As of today, i have earned about $125 since signing up two years ago even with sporadic usage. Maybe you were the one that got me to sign up for iBotta?
I also transferred my cable bill to Amex and got $5 back, but I am pretty sure it is a monthly cash back as long as I use Amex for the bill. They do the same for cell service bills so I switched Mint payments to Amex as well. This is a great effortless way to earn cash back!
Hmmm I have an ibotta account, but I haven’t used it in ages. I definitely should start poking around it more now that I’m buying “real” food.
Smart on switching the recurring bills to Amex. I don’t have any of those, but I’ll have to keep an eye out.
I just got a new-to-me 42″ TV from a neighbor for $100. I’ve been wanting a larger TV for a while, but just couldn’t justify replacing my old TV when it’s still working fine. Big frugal win for someone like me.
I also got a nice 2-drawer wooden filing cabinet from her for free. Not only does it look nice, but it will also be great for storage. My apartment only has a bedroom closet and some kitchen cabinets, so I NEED more storage options. Christmas came early!
Both excellent savings coups!
And yes, filing cabinets are a godsend — and the wooden ones look exponentially nicer than the metal ones. I should know since I have both.